guilty of committing fraud in their own neighborhoods. At what point do we recognize that our political system is turning our country into a snake that is eating its own tail?

Bernie is loyal only to his constituents and has proven that time after time. He is not a politician like Hillary. Hillary sways in the political wind, Bernie does not. Just check out his videos and compare them to Hillary's, he has always been on the correct side, Hillary hasn't. That's a big difference.

Z

That is only the start.

I don't see why you would think there is anything wriong with that.

Hell if he were being politically expedient, he'd have just joined the Democratic Party years ago. Most Vermont voters wouldn't give a shit -- they support HIM specifically.

If Sanders had chosen to buy into the crap, he'd have done things a lot differently. He'd probably have cashed out several years ago, and be living off "speaking and consulting" fees from coirproations and banksters and /or their think tanks and lobbyist groups.

He's not bought and paid for like all other politicians.

He's beholden to Americans and believes in an America that benefits all Americans.

Truly a unique position and a unique politician.

you know something so critical that you should be sharing it with us,

you.are.wrong.

about Bernie

He is the real deal.

As I said, if you know something about Bernie that belies his passion and dedication to the 99%, then you are obliged to come forward and share.

Go right ahead, we're all ears, and eyes.

Also, we need to use his campaign as a model for future candidates. Even if he loses to Hillary (which I don't concede), she is a formidable candidate with advantages few other candidates will ever have again.

We now have a model for a national campaign that can compete without corporate money. It needs to be improved on, we have to work on how to effectively fight back against a corporate controlled media that will back the corporate candidates. I think the Sanders campaign, and his followers, have made a lot of progress in that regard, though it's still a work in progress.

Let's see some other serious candidates run this way, we can stigmatize accepting corporate money (as we should) and counter with a crowd-funded and social media promoted campaign.

At some point, hopefully, "business as usual" will be as unacceptable as corruption used to be, At least move the dial closer to a balance.

I can't think of another politician that was mixing government business, her personal foundation and $$ for her husband together at the same time like she did at the State Dept. She had staffers who worked for her foundation while working for State and staffers who worked for her personally while working at State and staffers who worked for her biggest contributors while working at State. It was an ugly mess that really mars the Obama administration's clean record.

She's about as corrupt as the rest of them. But that's still pretty sad.

I like what Bernie is trying to do. That's not to say he isn't or won't become corrupt. Sadly, our system is set up for corruption.

he might become more "moderate" but I don't envision him selling out his principles or joining the Corruption Gravy Train

Life isn't all Tiger Beat personalized politics

You completely missed the point of the OP.

Life is not all in the tiny little boxes we construct around the candidates. There are bigger things at stake in elections and politics, no matter who one supports.

the " gee everybody is doing it " cop put is as tired as Hillary's campain strategy .

Which I feel is an even sadder statement about our political reality than the one you made. I think Hillary firmly believes in playing to win, she doesn't put great value on losing for an ultimately lost cause, based on her perception of what is and is not possible to actually achieve. I believe her perceptions of the latter have been colored by the path she believes she needed to travel in order to actually be in a position to win the presidency. It ends up as closed circle reasoning. One has to become minimally acceptable to powerful people in order not to be destroyed by powerful people in an effort to become powerful one's self. And thus you become one of them - differing only by degree, believing that those minor differences are if fact pragmatically bold positions to stake out. I think she thinks that she pretty much represents the near cutting edge of what is truly achievable in the way of social justice at this time for someone wanting a realistic chance to become President. I believe she is wrong but don't expect her to ever see it that way. It would invalidate a career long investment in following certain means towards what she believes is an honorable end. And she no longer is literally in touch with any alternate world view to the one that now surrounds her.

I believe Clinton does believe she is doing the right thing. But her association with the elites and the DC machine has made her think that very little is actually possible and/or that a bad system is actually the solution.

It's a shrinking of the perception of possibilities.

Most politicians are corrupt to their socks nowadays.

I am not saying Hillary is the worst politician who ever ran for the Presidency. There have been worse, even much worse. But saying she is no worse than anyone else who ran all is not correct either.

She shouldn't be lumped in with run of the mill politicians when it comes to Hoovering up the cash.

He had the courage not to abandon it along the road somewhere when no one was looking. He simply understands.

Sorry if an honest assessment of the way our system now operates (and a view the majority of the public share) isn't all sunlight and rainbows.